Israel's Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren's Op-ed of November 28 concerned the Islamic jihad against Israel, fought on many fronts, not the least of which are false narratives for Palestinian propaganda and outside pressure demanding equal casualties. Not so oddly, the Left never suggests that Israel return an equal number of rockets and missiles. Hamas, a recognized terrorist organization, uses its youth to throw stones at civilians and cars, employs rockets and missiles to terrorize Israeli citizens, and engages mainstream media to portray Israel as the aggressor. Unable to win militarily, Hamas is aided by the media's depicting Israel as the invader to delegitimize her internationally.

Islam breeds a contempt of women, recognized by their treatment in Muslim societies, including female genital mutilation; prohibiting their public appearance unaccompanied by a male escort and forced enshrouding under threat of rape; forbidding their driving cars, attending schools, working; condoning their honor killings by male family members; forced marriages, and more. These beleaguered women and children are also used by terrorists as human shields during rocket attacks on Israel, to increase the number of citizens killed and blame Israel's retaliatory strikes. Thus can mainstream media "attest" that Israel has done more damage and killed more people. Hamas can turn world opinion by claiming the higher body count, and boost the Palestinian accusation of war crimes against "innocent civilians," because journalists never report the millions of dollars Israel spends in early-warning systems and bunkers to protect her citizens from frequent attacks.

Granted, Israel's media coverage is second only to England's because her democracy is transparent, whereas the authoritarian Arab regimes strictly control the press corps, what they see and write, and whether they'll travel safely. So, in complete dishonesty, journalists fail to report that Gaza fired more than 2,256 rockets into Israel from January through November, 2012, and exceeded 13,000 since the beginning of the century, and nurture the enmity for the State of Israel. Because written media and television emphasize visuals over substance, as Amb. Oren proved, news agents eagerly print a story with photos that are often staged, inaccurate, obtained from other conflicts, or are of deaths caused by the Palestinians' own rockets — but the pictures are effective.

Mass media often uses terminology to turn the truth on its head, even as they know that Islamists represent a malevolent society. Under the harsh laws of Sharia, Muslims choose to continue their hostilities against women and homosexuals, and incite to murder Jews and Christians alike, worldwide, in the name of jihad, global conquest. The media will not inform that the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) is known to call the Gazans or drop leaflets announcing a forthcoming retaliatory effort to warn the civilians to leave the premises or be treated and counted among the obliging combatants.

The New York Times and the Post have led the way in implementing enlarged photographs of civilian Palestinians' suffering to play on Western opinions, never showing their sons of all ages dressed in their radical face coverings and belts of explosives, rallying in reverence of death and martyrdom. By contrast, they more often show Israeli soldiers while avoiding photos of heinous crimes perpetrated against Jewish families, housing destroyed by missiles, children trembling in fear of the next attack and having fifteen seconds to reach a safe bunker. PBS has all too often produced hour-long programming of seriously distorted pro-Palestinian misinformation, hosted by Islamists Christianne Amanpour, Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, Bob Simon, et al. Reuters has frequently been called to task for supplying the wrong photos for articles. When discovered and held accountable, a perfunctory correction is quickly replaced by another story, another hour of slander, another deceitful photo.

While the media applies the Islamic disproportionality tactic for Israelis, Arabs are held to a different standard. Israel's expulsion of four Palestinians earned far more headlines than Kuwait's deportation of hundreds of thousands, or 2459 barbaric attacks against five religions in 22 countries during 2012, or burning churches and parishioners, or President Assad's slaughter of 60,000+ Syrian citizens, imprisonment and torture of 37,000. Journalists have taken to calling Gaza the most densely populated area on earth to give false purpose to Palestinian "unrest," when, in fact, Tel Aviv has twice the population.

There is no longer any semblance of honor, respect for their craft, their reputation, or for the people they are supposed to serve My praise goes to Amb. Michael Oren for attempting to enlighten us. We must challenge the media, recognize these Islamic war strategies, and understand that America is no longer even a "stone's throw" away from indoctrinational warfare. It is here.

Tabitha Korol

Tabitha Korol began her political writing letters to the editor after her retirement, and earned an award from CAMERA (Committee on Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America) "in recognition of outstanding letter-writing in 2009 to promote fair and factual reporting about Israel." She was cited as one of America's modern-day, articulate, patriotic women in Frederick William Dame's Three American Fur Hat Fighters for Freedom.

Her essays appear on Arutz Sheva, Conservative News and Views, Dr. Swier, Grumpy Opinions, IsraelNewsTalkRadio, Israel's Voice, Jewish Press, JewishVoiceNY, New Media Journal, RenewAmerica, Tea Party Express, WebCommentary, Western Free Press and others. She revised David Silberman's book of Holocaust survivors' accounts for publication, and proofreads/edits for a monthly city newsletter.